Page 129 - Sotheby's Hong Kong Important Chinese Works of Art, Oct. 9, 2022

3654

PROPERTY FROM AN ASIAN PRIVATE COLLECTION 清雍正 窰變釉鋪首綬帶耳壺
A FINE AND RARE FLAMBÉ-GLAZED VASE, HU, 《雍正年製》款
SEAL MARK AND PERIOD OF YONGZHENG
來源：
22.4 cm
香港佳士得1993年10月25日，編號805
PROVENANCE 香港蘇富比2015年10月7日，編號3619
Christie's Hong Kong, 25th October 1993, lot 805.
Sotheby's Hong Kong, 7th October 2015, lot 3619.
HK$ 2,500,000-4,500,000
US$ 319,000-575,000

While at first glance this vase appears to be a familiar type,
finely potted in an elegant archaic bronze-inspired pear-
shaped body and covered with a striking glaze in imitation
of the celebrated Jun wares, it is unusual to find the mock
loop handles suspending tassels. Only one other closely
related vase appears to have been published, from the Qing
court collection and preserved in Beijing, illustrated in The
Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum.
Monochrome Porcelain, Hong Kong, 1999, pl. 181. Yongzheng
mark and period vases of this form are also known, usually
modelled with tubular handles, see one sold in these rooms,
15th May 1990, lot 75.
A great connoisseur of antique porcelains and with a
discerning aesthetic sense for works of art, the Yongzheng
Emperor demanded the highest level of craftsmanship in the
production of elegant implements for personal use. Various
attempts to recreate the Jun glaze had failed in the early
years of his reign to the emperor’s great disappointment,
until Nian Xiyao, the supervisor of the Imperial kilns, sought
a new recipe amongst the elderly craftsmen in Junzhou,
Henan province, where it is believed the Jun glaze originated.
According to the Palace records, in the 8th year of the
Yongzheng reign (1730), the Emperor responded positively
for the first time to a group of imitation Jun wares and
remarked 'This group is outstanding. Have Nian Xiyao
produce a couple more similar pieces' (see The Tsui Museum
of Art: Chinese Ceramics IV. Qing Dynasty, Hong Kong, 1991,
p. 48). Several studies on flambé glaze have revealed that
this new recipe required the application of a layer of copper
blue glaze with traces of lead, over a layer of red glaze,
which when fired creates striking glaze streaks that were so
admired by the Qing Emperor.

Mark

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